So bad at authors notes. Always come off being, well, idiotic. Not entirely surprising. But let us plunge ahead, yes? My first EVO fic. Squeee. Be gentle, but I do enjoy criticism. So anything you have to say would be just peachy. I would like to say that, well, I haven't read too many EVO fics out there, so I hope I am not writing a fic that is identical to someone elses. If I am, I'll apologize in advance. Not wanting to tread upon anyone's toes. Hopefully, I will have enough twists to make this dissimilar to any other superb EVO fics out there. Cross our fingers, yes?
Well, personally, am a Rogue/Remy fanatic. So don't be surprised if certain things seem to be moving in that direction. Will try to get lots of the other characters in here as well, but most chapters will probably be in Rogue's perspective. She is just so much fun to write.
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1/?
Another Bad Day
ChaosCat
23 June 2003
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Rogue was moping.
Not that this was anything out of the ordinary for the X-Men's resident Goth, but nevertheless, tonight she seemed to be redefining the art. She'd not ventured out of her room since dinner, when she'd left the table and stormed out of the dining room. Kitty had been up earlier, trying to talk to her, but Rogue had snapped at her younger roommate, forcing the girl to flee downstairs instead of facing the sulking beast that was Rogue.
Probably shouldn't have been so harsh, she thought, staring at paper on her lap as guilt seeped into her conscience. The guilt only made her more irritable.
Irritated at herself. Irritated at everyone at the Institute. Hell, irritated at life in general. And especially at anything that even resembled fate, or any force remotely like it at work in the Universe at large. In short, Rogue had had a bad day.
It wasn't enough that she had been born a mutant. A mutant who just happened to possess the ability to absorb other people's thoughts, memories, and in the case of other mutants, their powers, just by touch. It wasn't enough that this unwanted ability kept her from being able to touch anyone. Ever. Or even hope to have a normal life.
It wasn't enough that the only guy she'd even remotely shown interest in, one Scott Summers, was hopelessly infatuated with the most perfect girl in the world, telepath and telekinetic Jean Grey. A person who Rogue knew she couldn't dream of competing with.
And it wasn't enough that her own "mother", shaper shifter and sociopath known as Mystique, had posed as a high school student in order to befriend Rogue, only if in yet another attempt to manipulate her.
All these things Rogue could handle. After all, she'd been handling them, hadn't she? For the most part anyway. Excluding the incident where she'd lost control of all the psyches she'd absorbed and landed herself in the Med Lab for two weeks.
Still, the fact remained that far was not content with the absurdity of Rogue's life. And all the mayhem that had been thrown at her from every possible angle. No, Fate was a royal bitch.
Rogue had gotten a C on her French paper. Not an ordinary C, oh no, but a C-. The auburn haired girl frowned, staring at the red streaked paper in front of her. The teacher certainly hadn't spared any ink. That was for sure.
It just wasn't fair! She'd been breezing through French before – before the entire city of Bayville had been alerted to the presence of mutants in their terribly normal community. Then, everything had changed. Not that it had bothered Rogue much at first, considering her official status as outcast extraordinaire with the students. But now the teachers were discriminating against her as well
All of them, she amended ruefully. No one had escaped the resentment at school completely, even Miss Perfect. Rogue had noticed the absence of several trophies from the school display. Even though Rogue would never admit it to anyone, she knew that Jean had those trophies. It just wasn't fair. Of course, in Rogue's experience, life was never fair. That was just how things went. She hadn't been hurt or shocked by the changes at school after they had been exposed like some of the others at the Institute had been, only frustrated.
"Rogue!" There was a pounding on the door accompanying the shout.
Speaking of frustration.
"Would you turn your stereo down?" Jean's plaintive voice bellowed through the door. "Some of us are trying to study!"
Rogue frowned, glancing over at her stereo. It wasn't even turned up all the way. Couldn't a person listen to music in peace?
"No." She responded, feeling particularly contrary at the moment.
"Rogue?" Jean called again, obviously not having heard her. "Can you hear me?"
The Goth rolled her eyes. Maybe if she ignored her long enough, the telepath would take the hint and go away. She went back to her brooding, the soothing music of The Deftones a nice background noise for her mood. She went back to her brooding.
It wasn't as if Jean would come into her room anyway. Rogue could count the times the redhead had done so on one hand. And she especially wouldn't do so now. The entire Institute had been walking on pins and needles since the incident the night of the concert, when she'd accidentally absorbed Risty. No, it was been Mystique all along, hadn't it? Rogue pushed those thoughts aside, along with the feeling of betrayal that welled up within her, with tired impatience. Still, it was no reason for everyone to treat her like she had the plague. Even more than they usually did.
She'd walk into a room, and the conversation would come to a screeching halt. It was infuriating, but not as bad as how they acted if anyone brought up anything remotely related to Mystique. It was as if sacrilege had been spoken. It was driving her insane. At least the Professor and the instructors weren't acting the same way. Logan, Hank, and Ororo acted as if they'd forgotten about the incident, which was a relief.
Of course, it was this little matter that had set Rogue off at dinner. Someone, probably one of the New Mutants, had commented on Mystique, and the coloring of her skin. The entire table of students fell silent, turning to look at the unfortunate speaker. Logan had gone back to his steak with little more than a raised eyebrow. The collective gaze had then flitted first to Kurt, and then fixed itself upon Rogue.
She'd been slightly less than congenial about the matter. Gritting her teeth, her jaw set, she waited. She'd already been slightly ticked off at the grade on her paper. This was not helping.
In some detached part of her mind, she began making a list of her options: A) Ignore it, and finish her food, which was edible, since it wasn't Kitty's night to make dinner, B) Say something witty, which she wasn't so great at, or C) Storm out, leaving nothing resolved.
And Rogue, being Rogue, choose the illustrious C. And that was exactly what she did.
And that had left her up in her room, where she had been for the past two hours, listening to music and staring at the dreaded French paper, a sure sign that things were not about to look up.
At least Jean had gone away now, realizing that the volume probably wasn't going to be altered anytime soon. One less thing to worry about. Now, if only there were something to do about her French teacher. To fix her grade before she bombed yet another exam. Yeah right, that would happen, just after Scott stopped following Lean around with puppy dog eyes. That was a nice fantasy, but not a very realistic one.
Rogue flopped backwards on her bed, eyes closed. Yeah, life just wasn't fair. Nor would be magically begin to be anytime soon. All she wanted at the moment was to sit here and mope, not matter how childish that might seem.
BAMPH!
"Umm, Vogue? Jean vants to know if you vill turn the music down."
There was no mistaking the presence, even without the accent or the rather pugent scent of sulfur hovering in the air. Rogue's green eyes snapped open, and she jerked her head up to see a rather nervous fuzzy blue demon standing in the middle of her room, tail lashing anxiously behind him. There was a hopeful smile on his face.
"Kurt!!"
***
Kitty Pryde bit her lower lip, staring at the spot where Kurt had disappeared just a few moments before. The only slightly muffled thumping of bass filtered through the ceiling. Yep, Rogue was in a bad mood. It wasn't really a big surprise to Kitty, who, as her roommate, had lived with Rogue in far worse moods. And considering Rogue's increasing tendency to withdraw lately. Not that she hadn't always been withdrawn, but since they'd discovered the truth about Risty, well, it had only gotten worse.
"You think she'll listen to him?" Amara asked at Kitty's left. There were both sitting on the couch, most of the other students scattered about the mansion's study.
"She's totally going to kick his ass!" Bobby Drake's cheeky reply received only a glare from Kitty.
"She won't," Scott responded tersely.
"He's just asking her to turn the music down," Jean chirped. "If the Professor were here, he'd ask the same. She's just feeling moody at the moment, she'll get over it."
"Yeah, but like, we are not the Professor." Kitty felt inclined to point out. "And he's not going to be back for a few hours."
"Why didn't Logan say anything?" Amara queried.
"Because he's disappeared, as usual." Scott frowned. It was no secret that he and their combat instructor didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things.
"She's totally going to kick his ass."
This time, Kitty, Jean, and Scott all turned to glare at Bobby. He only grinned. Amara suppressed a giggle. Scott looked as if he were about to say something when the thumping ceiling abruptly went still, causing all the students to look up.
"Well, that's a good sign." Scott remarked, breaking the silence.
BAMPH!
"Oh man, you guys!" Kurt Wagner had his usual appearance in a cloud of purplish smoke and stench of sulfur. Running a three fingered hand through his hair, he continued.
"Iz she mad or vhat?"
The sound of a door slamming upstairs punctuated his words.
"Kurt, what happened?" Kitty queried.
"Vell, I asked her about her stereo." The teleported shrugged.
"And?"
The sound of combat boots clumping down the staircase in the front hall was unmistakably from one very unhappy mutant. The noises lead to the group all poking their heads from the doorway in time to see a very disgruntled Rogue stalking across the foyer.
"Rogue?" Kitty venturied, knowing it was a bad idea even as the name left her tongue.
"Ah'm goin' out." The girl answered, not bothering to glance at the group still standing in the doorway as she grabbed her coat. "Alone."
Kitty caught a glance of Jean look back at the clock. Then the redhead spoke. "Isn't it a little late for that?"
Kitty winced, knowing Rogue would not take kindly to that, and she was not disappointed. The auburn haired mutant turned her head, glaring at the assembly crowding the doorway, each a bit to hesitant to approach Rogue in her current mood.
"Ah don't see how that is any of yo'r business!" She snapped back, throwing the front door open and stalking out.
"Rogue, wait-"
Kitty winced as Rogue slammed the door behind her, cutting off Scott's plea. Exchanging a look with Kurt, she put a hand on the dejected boy's shoulder. As usual, Kurt would probably end up blaming himself for this, when it was really just Rogue's temperament which had caused the outburst.
"Don't worry Kurt. She just needs like, a little time."
"She didn't kick his ass, bummer."
***
Having escaped the bundles of raging hormones, also known as teenagers, for the night, Logan relished in his few moments of peace and quiet. The Professor had left him behind in order to baby-sit the students while he and had attended some conference in Manchester. Enjoying his nightly cigar and still internally grumbling about his duty, Logan was almost surprised as he watched Rogue slam the front door in her wake.
In her hast, she hadn't spotted Logan, half hidden in the darkened area of the front porch. He had sprawled on one of the "cute" little chairs Ororo had insisted upon buying, saying they "opened the porch up" or some other nonsense. Logan had grunted that they were a waste of money, but personally, he had to admit they were comfortable.
"Where ya headed Stripes?"
His question obviously startled the girl. Logan could smell her agitation, mingled with fury as the girl almost tripped down the steps she had been stomping down determinedly just moments before.
She whirled around, emerald irises glittering in surprise, which she quickly masked with defiance.
"For ah walk." She snapped. "Why? Ya gonna tell me Ah can't even take ah walk anymore?"
Logan had to fight to keep the gruff expression in place. One thing could be said about Stripes, the kid had spunk. Very few of Xavier's students would mouth off to him. Rogue must be in a really bad mood. A walk to blow off her steam might not be such a bad idea. 'Sides, it wasn't that late.
"Nah." He shrugged lazily, chewing on the end of his cigar. "Just going to advice you to be back before Chuck gets home."
"Fahne." Rogue answered, turning back around. She hesitated a moment on the last step. "Logan?"
"Yeah, kid?" The gruff Canadian arched a brow at the uncertainty in her voice.
"Thanks." She finally answered before she started off.
Logan only grunted, watching her retreating figure.
***
She hadn't meant to wander too far from the Mansion, she realized as she passed beneath a streetlight, especially not this far. Walking down the sidewalk between rows of residential suburb homes, yards neatly trimmed and home to the majority of Bayville's populace, Rogue sighed. She'd been in such a foul mood, she hadn't even noticed how far from the Institute she'd wandered.
Rogue stopped in her tracks, watching the clouds flicker across the moon. The effect it caused was dramatic, interplay of shadow and light against the houses and foliage.
It was getting late, she knew, and her feet were beginning to hurt. Maybe going for a walk hadn't been such a great idea. But it had been a good way to blow off steam. She was feeling a good more civil now. Maybe it was time to go back to the Mansion and face the lecture from the Professor. He was sure to be home by the time she got back. Unless she miraculously developed the ability to teleport in the next ten minutes.
She turned, intent upon heading back home, when a flicker of movement caught her eye. She blinked. A stray dog, her mind tried to write it off. No, it had been something bigger. A person sized shape. It had disappeared behind a row of shrubs, whatever it had been. But who would be out this time of night anyway? Rogue frowned, a suspicion settling in her get. Was someone following her?
The bad thing about being paranoid was when you were right. She just knew something was following her now that the idea had popped into her brain. Purposefully, she began walking toward the tall shrubbery.
Probably Kurt. It wouldn't be surprising. Since she'd awakened in the Med Lab, Rogue could scarcely breathe without the teleporter tripping over her. Ever since he had discovered Mystique had adopted her, he'd been acting like they were long-lost family. It was almost true. And almost nice, Rogue admitted. But it wouldn't have surprised her in the slightest if he had followed her. The more she thought about it, the more convinced she was that it was him.
She stopped a few feet from the house.
"Kurt! Is that you?" She half-hissed, half-yelled at the shadows. No lights were on the house, but Rogue had no desire to wake up the neighborhood.
The shrubs rustled a bit in response. Rogue frowned.
"Ah though Ah told ya'll Ah wanted to be alone?"
Silence greeted her.
"Ya better answer me!"
"Sorry kid, but Kurt ain't here." The strange voice came from behind her. Startled, Rogue whirled to face the speaker, her defensive instincts kicking in at the harsh tone.
Something struck her in the back of the neck as she turned. Pain blossomed from the point, similar to that of a bee sting. Trap. Her brain screamed, but it was a bit too late for that. Just as the meager pain had fully registered in her sense, the edges of her vision blurred.
Definitely not good.
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Well, that's it for this week, kids. Do tell me what ya think, if ya managed to read through the whole thing. I do love attention.
And the accents. . Must work on them, I know. Anyone have any advice? I know nothing about German.